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Michigan Search Logic Defined

Tips for a Trouble Free Search

The Department of State UCC Office maintains a searchable index for all UCC records. A search may be requested to determine whether there are any financing statements naming a particular debtor. A UCC search report consists of all initial financing statements and all related amendments associated with the debtor name requested.

Searches may be requested by regular mail, express mail or in-person. Only expedited account customers may request searches via facsimile at 517-322-5434. Searches conducted through electronic mail or data interchange are currently not available.

When requesting a debtor name search, follow these simple rules to ensure you get the information you need. It is also your responsibility to determine whether a particular financing statement naming a debtor is presently effective. In addition, the Michigan Department of State UCC Office will not correct spelling or other errors. Debtor names will be searched exactly as they were provided.

From the Michigan Administrative Rules, with clarification added in bold-italic:

R 440.510 Search logic*.

Rule 510. Search results are created by applying standardized search logic to the name presented to the filing officer by the person requesting the search. Human judgment does not play a role in determining the results of the search. All of the following provisions are applied to conduct searches:

(1) The number of matches that may be returned in response to the search criteria is not limited.

Unless the customer restricts the search by completing a search option on the UCC11 form (fields 3a-3h), the customer will receive as many search results matching the search request as are contained in the Michigan document management system.

Note: Foreign characters are not recognized and will be treated as accents. Unrecognized characters include but are not limited to: á, æ, ì, ñ, ô, and ü.

Only the letters A to Z in upper or lower case, the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, and the symbol &, in any combination, are considered in conducting the search.

"Wesson and Wesson" equals "Wesson & Wesson"; "Two Men and a Truck" does not equal "2 Men and a Truck"; "Jim" does not equal "James"; "Wm" does not equal "William".

(d) Words and abbreviations at the end of a name that indicate the existence or nature of an organization are disregarded, including, but not limited to, any of the following or abbreviations of the following:

Agency

Association, Assn or Assoc

Attorney at Law or Attorneys at Law

Bank or National Bank

Business Trust

Charter or Chartered

Company or Co

Corporation or Corp

Credit Union or CU

Federal Savings Bank or FSB

General Partnership, Gen Part or GP

Incorporated or Inc

Limited, Ltd or Ltee

Limited Liability Company, LC or LLC

Limited Liability Partnership or LLP

Limited Partnership or LP

Medical Doctors Professional Association or MDPA

Medical Doctors Professional Corporation or MDPC

National Association or NA

Partners or Partnership

Professional Association, Prof Assn or PA

Professional Corporation, Prof Corp or PC

Professional Limited Liability Company or Professional Limited Liability Co or PLLC

(h) After taking the preceding provisions into account to modify the name of the debtor requested to be searched and to modify the names of debtors contained in unlapsed financing statements in the UCC information management system, the search will reveal only names of active debtors that, as modified, exactly match the name requested, as modified.

Note: Search logic is applied to a query in a specific order: First the query text is converted to all upper case. Then punctuation and accents are removed. Next, noise words are removed. After that, "The" is removed from the beginning of the name. And finally, all remaining spaces are removed.